BRITAIN’S historic handover of Hong Kong was very nearly plunged into chaos when a cleaner threw Prince Charles’s speech in the bin, it has emerged.

The midnight ceremony was already causing massive headaches for organisers, not least because torrential rain had drenched dignitaries and guests in the open-air grandstands.

And a new book as revealed how the Prince of Wales’s carefully prepared words were chucked out by an over zealous cleaner ahead of the handover on June 30, 1997.

According to Robert Hardman, author of Queen of the World, the Prince’s equerry Lieutenant Commander John Lavery had placed the speech on his own seat for safekeeping before introducing Charles to the VIPs in the grandstands at HMS Tamar, the main British base on the colony.

Mr Hardman writes: “As the Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch ushered all the military detachments into the centre of the parade square, Lavery reached for the Prince’s speech. It was not there.”

The author then describes the frantic search which followed as Cmdr Lavery began contemplating the end of his career when he spotted the cleaner emptying the contents of a dustpan into a bin off to one side.

He salvaged the royal speech from the rubbish and sprinted back to the VIP grandstand where he handed it to the Prince with just minutes to spare.

The book adds: “The proceedings were not helped by a tropical downpour, which, in the absence of covered grandstands, drenched all those without an umbrella – including the Prince himself.

“Dressed in full Royal Navy uniform, he at least had the luxury of a peaked cap. The outgoing governor, Chris Patten, looked as if he had gone swimming fully clothed.”

Prince Charles delivers his speech at the handover of Hong Kong (Image: GETTY)

The trip to China was Charles’s last on his beloved Royal Yacht Britannia before it was decommissioned.

The Prince later sparked a diplomatic incident diaries he wrote during the tour were leaked describing the handover as the "Great Chinese Takeaway" and the Chinese officials as "appalling old waxworks".

In another reported extract, Prince Charles described the ceremony as an "awful Soviet-style" performance and dismissed the speech by President Jiang Zemin as "propaganda", complete with loud cheering "by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text".

He also ridiculed the People's Liberation Army's goose-steps in the ceremony and claimed Britannia was closely watched by Chinese warships as it sailed out of Hong Kong harbour.